


In Plain Sight, Hidden

by mayachain



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Hogwarts Third Year, M/M, POV Outsider, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-22
Updated: 2007-04-22
Packaged: 2017-10-05 10:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayachain/pseuds/mayachain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco flaunts, Minerva scolds, and Dumbledore has his reasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Plain Sight, Hidden

  


* * *

Dumbledore sighed. Over at the Slytherin table, Draco Malfoy sat surrounded by his father's associates' sons, making a big show of stroking the arm that was still in a sling. In the interim between the first and second dinner course, Minerva had asked him outright if there wasn't anything he'd deign to do about the situation - Draco`s arm was clearly healed, and the boy was only obstructing the games' schedule and fishing for attention. His beloved staff-room confidante had become quite huffy when he'd benignly told her that no, being a Slytherin, Draco's behaviour was and rightfully should be first and foremost Severus' concern.

What he hadn't quite been able to tell her was that he'd actually come to dinner with every intention of uttering some pointed words to the boy later that evening. To, say, inquire politely after the state of the Slytherin seeker's bone, but he'd been arrested from idly planning in which corridor to surprise young by discovering something startling.

Hidden in plain sight, in that nobody ever paid any attention, a pair of soft brown eyes were following every movement of the pale fingers theatrically stroking the sling, every so often travelling upwards to stare hard, no, intently at the face of the Slytherin as if trying to _see _something. While Minerva was a formidable head of house, she was letting her passion for Quidditch distract her from noticing a far more important development.

He couldn't be quite sure if the thirteen-year-old mind behind the brown eyes had any means of comprehending it yet, but Dumbledore recognized in the gaze the beginning of something that could, one day, for some, come to change everything. The seed of it must have come to life while nobody was watching, and it would only be able to survive if left alone, so fragile it would no doubt wither away in face of any outside intervention. It was too dangerous to meddle - the most powerful wizard of his time could of course try to be secretive about it, but if in some roundabout way even a whispered word ever leaked out, there was no way the brown-eyed boy who had such fear of failing his grandmother, friends and everyone else was independent enough yet to handle the headmaster's, however unobtrusive, side-taking.

So the headmaster had finished his first dinner course and decided to do nothing, except taking on Lucius Malfoy about Buckbeak's fate and Hagrid's suspension behind the scene. The adult universe was still removed far enough that a clear position wouldn't influence the adolescents, but having witnessed the first spark of interest that might grow into love he could not, would not talk directly about the faked-ness of young 's injury to the students.

Digging into his dinner plate while feeling Minerva's reproving eyes upon him, he wished he could explain to her what he had seen, but she would have to figure it out herself before they could have that conversation. In the meantime, he could only watch and hope that if no-one knew about its existence, the tiny seed he'd spotted at the Gryffindor table would quietly grow into its potential; an unexpected safety net more vital to young Draco than either Severus nor Minerva could fathom, strong enough to protect the pale boy who would, in this the headmaster never had any doubt, one day need it more than anyone could imagine.

  


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End file.
